Safety attachment for rolling-stock of railroads.



A. JORDAN. SAFETY ATTACHMENT FOR ROLLING STOCK 0F RAILROADS. APPLICATION FILED MAR.25,1912.

1,048,078, Patented Dec.24,1912.

a wuewto'o Aim) Jozaiv UNITED sTATEs PATENT OFFICE.

ALLEN JORDAN, or BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA, ASSIGNOR or ONE-THIRD TO .1. B. PII L,

or BIRMINGHAM, ALABAM SAT arr ATTACHMENT. FoaRoLLiNe-si'ooK or RAILROAZDS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 24, 1912.

Application filed March 25, 1912. Serial m, 685,930.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALLEN JORDAN, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Birminghannin the county of Jetferson and State of Alabama, have. invented certain new and useful Improvements in Safety Attachments for Rolling-Stock of Railroads, of which the following is a specification. I v

My invention relates to attachments on the bodies of cars, locomotivesf-or other rolling stockof railroads adapted to prevent not only the derailing of the truck wheels, but also the sluing of the truck after derailment which is one of the most serious .causes of destructive accidents, and as an additional precaution my apparatus is adapted to automatically set the brakes on the car or train when the truckwheels assume an abnormal position.

The object of my invention is to simplify and reduce the cost of safetymeans of the character described, to make it available for general use without prohibitive expense, and to thisend I have conceived the idea of at taching to the car or locomotive body, sets of strong metal lugs or stops'so arranged relatively to the wheels that when a truck moves .beyond its normal angular adjustments in followingthe track curves one or more of its wheels will engage a lug which will stop any further angular movement of the truck and either prevent the derailment of the wheels or hold the wheels when derailed in substantial alinement with the track, the lugs being preferablyspaced so as to engage the wheels before the truck can swing sufliciently out of alinement to become derailed.

A further object of my invention is to provide a mechanism whereby the angular play of a truck beyond normal op eratmg positions 1n roundin curves, Wlll act to set to the lugs and adapting the wheels of the truck to open a valve, when they engage the lug and set the brake. Inasmuchas it is .desirable to holda valve open, after it has been once actuated by a wheel, until all of the air in the train line system isexhausted to thereby effect an emergency application of air on the entire brakesystem of the train, I provide a catch which will automatically engage and hold the valve in its open position until released by hand.

My invention further comprises the details of construction and" arrangement of parts, which, in their preferred embodiment, are hereinafter more particularly described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings which form a part of this specification, and in which Figure 1 is a top plan viewof my apparatus with the ;car shown in dotted lines. Fig: 2 is 'a front elevation of a car body equipped with my improvement and in theact of arresting a truck, the wheels of which are about to be derailed. Fig. 3 is'a detail vertical sectional viewthrough the'ends of the stop plate. Fig. 4 is a detail View of the valve mechanism for automaoical'lysetting the air brakes. v

Similar reference numerals refer to simi-, lar parts throughout the drawings.

I illustrate the preferred embodiment of my invention applied to a railway car I,

beam, their outer ends? being normally spaced a short distance from the inner walls of their respective adjacent wheels 4;. Each step plate has a wear plate 8 pivotallyconnected thereto 'by a pin 9 which passes through the inturned side edgesof the plate 8 and through an upper extension on the end 7 of the stop plate. This wear plate is readily detachable and interchangeable.

It is normally held out from the end 7 of the stop plate by the stem 10 0f a valve 1.1, which is. mounted in a valve casing 12 having a spider 13 forming abearin for a guide stem 14 for the valve. Acoile spring '15 is slippedover stem 14 and bears at one;

end against the spider 13, and at.the' other against. valve '11. This sprmg urges the v1 ve towardits seat and thereby moves the -10 to holdthe wear plate'8 in the 110-.

s v sit iongshown in Fig. 3. The valve has wings air brake system, causing the application of the brakes. Toinsure nick emer ency a n o i o I D v plication of the brakes ,it is necessary to practically exhaust the air pressure in the train line and to this end I find it advisable to hold the valve or valves 11 open after each is opened by the engagement of a wheel with its respective plate 8, which is moved there- .loy to shift stem 10 inwardly and open the valve. I provide a pin 20 which projects above the casing 12 and has its lower end forming a catch 21 which is urged downward by a coiled spring 22 in position to snap into a seat 23 formed between two wings 16, when the valve is open, the catch being adapted to positively and automatically engage the valve to hold it in its open position until the pin is grasped by hand and raised against the action of spring 22 to release the valve, when its spring 15 will close it.

In operation, the stop plates are so set that provision being made for the longi tudinal play of the wheel axle and for tl swinging of the trucks in following the shortest curve permissible in standard railroad practice, the wheels will not strike said stops until the truck assumes an abnormal position, due to the wheels tending to climb the rail or to slue when the truck is derailed from any cause. In Fig. 2 the stop is shown arresting the swing of the truck system before the wheel flange clears the tread of the rail to derail the truck. This use of my invention is'of great importance.

A further and most important use is that when the truck is derailed from any cause,

such as a split or broken rail, an open switch, or even from the removal of a rail, the stops will prevent the truck from slumg and tearing up the .track and wrecking the car for they will engage the inner faces of the wheels and cause them to run over the road-bed in substantial alinement with the track. brakes is controlled by an abnormal position of the wheels and will immediately set the brakes throughout the train. The stop plates may be of any desired construction and applied in any practical way to the car or engine. it being understood when I use the term car that I mean engine or any other type of rolling stock. The stops will project down suiiieiently to insure their engaging the wheels after the latter have been The application of the airderailed, which frequently causes them to drop substantially below the normal posi- I tion on the rail with reference to thecar body.

The end 7 of the stop plate 6 may, if desired, be beveled outwardly from the center of the truck and toward the center line of the car to make it parallel to the face of its respective wheel as the latter is swung about the center pivot and into position to enr and desire to secure said wheels and stop them before they move beyond a preddtermined distance out of normal alinement, and means actuated by said wheels when they assume an abnormal position to set the brakes 011 the car, substantially as described.

2-. In combination with a car body, a truck, wheels journaled in the truck, and heavy metal lugs rigidly attached to and depending from the car body in position to engage the wheels when they swing angularly in a horizontal plane beyond predetermined normal operating posit-ions.

3. In combination, a railway car body, trucks pivotally connected thereto, wheels mounted in the trucks, and means to prevent angular movements of the trucks beyond normal operating positionswhich comprise stop lugs rigidly connected to the ear body and adapted to be engaged by the inner faces of the wheels when the truck moves abnormally out of line.

4. In combination, a railway car or locomotive body, a truck frame pivoted thereto and provided with wheels, two or more heavy metallic lugs rigidly attached to said body and positioned adjacent to the inner faces of the wheels of each truck, said lugs being adapted to engage the wheels and arrest the angular movement of the trucks be- .yond predetermined normal operating positions.

5. The combination of a car body, trucks pivotally connected thereto and wheels mounted in the trucks, of stop plates connectcd to the car body and depending into position to he engaged by the inner faces of the wheels when the truck swings beyond predetermined normal. operating positions, and detachable wearing plates mounted on the ends of said stop plates, substantially as described. A

6. The combination of a car body having a center beam, trucks pivotally connected to said beam, wheels mounted on the trucks, a.

pair of oppositely disposed stop plates con nected to said beam opposite each pair of s itions before a wheel thereof will engage its respective stop, and: valves disposed adjacent to said sto or stops and having an operating stem a apted to be engaged and -moved by a vwheel as it swings into contact 10.

with a stop plate, said valves acting to re duce the pressurein the train line of the air brake system to set the brakes, substantially as described. P

7. The combination with a car body, a truck pivotally connected thereto and Wheels journaled in the truck, of sto' lugs rigidly connected to the body of the e r and adapted to be engaged by the wheels when the truck swings horizontally to an abnormal position, an air brake-system having pipes leading to two or more of said stop lugs, and valvescarried by two or; more ofsaid lugs and adapted to be engaged and opened by the wheels as they swing into engagement with the stops, said valves when open acting to set the air brakes, substantially as described.

8. A car body having depending lugs, wheels on which the car is supported and which are adapted to engage said lugs before swinging angularly in a horizontal plane sufiieiently to become derailed, wear plates pivoted to the ends of said stops, valves carried by said stops and having springpressed stems engaging the inner face of said wear plates and holding the same normally away from the stops, each valve being connected to the air brake system and being adapted to be opened when a car wheel engages its respective wear plate and moves it inwardly, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I aflixmy signature in presence of two witnesses,

ALLEN JORDAN. Witnesses:

NoMIn WELSH, R. D. JoHNsToN. 

